Blue collars vote red, rednecks vote blue - no wonder the country ends up with a government that satisfies nobody.

This coupled with Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, as well as an earthquake in Kashmir and the now normal bombings in Iraq and it seems to have been a particularly turbulent spring.

(Don’t forget the petrol price hikes!)

This is however par for the course, spring is always the most vibrant of seasons.

However appearances can be deceptive.

First of all the more vicious events are all in the Northern hemisphere, i.e. autumn for them.

Secondly the MMP stalled governmental process is more inertia than upheaval.

A better guide to the spring has been the weather since the tail end of winter. Dairy farmers have never had it so good, with the balmy calm weather making the early and mid spring the best in many a long year.

The lack of a government for a few short weeks seemed to give the weather gods the confidence to do

what they liked and there were a couple of wet cooler weeks.

However these only served to bring some welcome rain for our pastoral farming industry. Even the equinox seemed more placid than usual.

So, just as everything in the garden is looking rosy, along comes the Reserve Bank to hike up interest rates dramatically…..

FITTING BETWEEN SEASONS

October, being late spring, is always a mixture of a time between seasons.

As such the October Newsletter is generally a pot pourri of subjects and this one is no different.

Data has just come to light on potassium deficiency in dairy cattle, small animal interest is assuaged with an article on cardiac therapy, while another on summer racing will interest those in the equine industry.

There is also a report of trial work on suture material that should interest surgeons, no matter what their field of veterinary expertise.

Oh, and we have not run out of jokes!!